The Second Generation
by WhisperMaw
Summary: Matt never wanted this for his children. Now he has no choice but to let them go and fight. Takes place 30 years after the initial invasion. Written with the help of AwesomeChick101.
1. We Shouldn't Know

My dad doesn't really talk much about anything, at least, anything that matters. Sure, he'll ask me about my day and comment on the weather but a girl expects more from their father than small talk. I think that's all he knows anymore; small talk and fake smiles. No matter how many times he lies and says he's fine, all of us know that he isn't. How could he be? We're not supposed to know the truth, but we do. Soft whispers through closed doors can still be heard if you're patient enough to listen.

Sometimes I hear them talking about Uncle Ben. Dad told us that when the Society was built, Uncle Ben wasn't able to assimilate. Eventually, his mind just broke and so did his body. That's a lie though. Uncle Ben took a Glock 19 to his own head when the Resistance failed and peace came. Everyone knows it. Even the kids at Learning whisper behind their hands about Kennedy Mason's crazy dead uncle. Unfortunately, he's not the only one.

Uncle Hal might be worse than Uncle Ben. Uncle Hal didn't kill himself, but sometimes I wonder if it would've been better for everyone around him if he had. After his wife died, Uncle Hal became a cold hearted, mean man. Dad tried to tell us that our Uncle was gravely ill and that it was his 'brotherly duty' to look after Uncle Hal's daughter, Faith, but not a single one of us kids bought it. Faith did her best to cover up the bruises that her father gave her, but sometimes her sleeve would slip up a little further than she'd meant it to when she'd go to wash her hands or her shirt tail would come un-tucked when she leaned over for something. Then we'd see the blacks and blues painted on her skin like she was some kind of canvas. The way she'd hesitate with fear in her eyes when she headed home at the end of the day really sealed the deal. Uncle Hal drank to drown his sorrows and beat to bury his angers.

The Mason family of crazies only gets better from there. Papa Tom was a great man once. That's what they tell us Mason kids anyways. Now he's just a shell of a person. People have to force him to eat and force him to drink. They'd be forcing him to breathe if it wasn't human instinct. Dad told us that he used to be a history professor and that's where our names came from; McKinley, Hoover, Reagan, and Kennedy. The once great professor hadn't spoken in years; not a single word. Sitting by the window of our living room, he stares out into an abyss that's invisible to the rest of us. I think he sees past the Wall with his old eyes, I think he remembers the way things were before. He remembers back when Hal was a man to be reckoned with and not a coward of a human being who can't stay sober long enough to remember his daughter lost her mother just like he lost his wife. He remembers when Ben was a teenager, scared and alone, but alive and healthy. Maybe he even remembers himself, the man who was the second in command to the 2nd Massachusetts Resistance Militia. Kids like me are lucky. We were born behind the Wall of the Society. We were born safe, but Dad and Mom and Papa Tom and Uncle Hal and Uncle Ben…they weren't so fortunate. They all remember.

On our mantel piece sit five pictures in beautiful wooden frames. The most recent was a family picture. I was standing in the back trying to get Hoover to stop pinching my elbow and McKinley was frowning down at us both. Since she turned 16 she'd gotten to be nothing but high and mighty. Baby Reagan, well I guess she isn't a baby anymore, was sitting in Mom's lap screaming her head off and Dad had brought his hand to his forehead. All in all, it was a pretty interesting family portrait.

To the left of our family photo sits a one from a wedding that took place about 18 years ago. Mom looked more beautiful than I'd ever seen her; you couldn't even tell her scars were there. The dress was A-line with just hints of iridescent blue beads here and there. Blue was my mom's favorite color. Her curls had been pinned up into an intricate bun and Daddy looked happier than he ever was. My parents had gotten married before Uncle Ben decided to destroy his own family, piece by piece.

Next to my parent's wedding photo sat a second. An especially handsome young man had his arm around a girl in a simple knee length white dress. Their faces were both dirty with mud and splatters of blood. The girl desperately needed to run a hair brush through her long, wavy blonde locks. The backdrop of the photo seemed to be in the middle of the woods and I'd deduced that this had to be my Uncle Hal before he spiraled into the hell he's in now. I recognized the hair on the girl that must be my Aunt Maggie. Faith had inherited her mother's hair. Uncle Hal had gotten married in the middle of the woods half way through an alien invasion. I really wish he hadn't turned into such a mess. He must've been such a badass in his time.

Then there was the picture of Papa Tom and a woman named Anne. Dad had explained to me that his father and Anne had been married once and that they technically still were. He also told me that if he could help it, I would never meet her. Of course, that's Mason family code for you're going to meet her and I did. It had been around three years ago. I had been 7 or 8 at the time but I knew right off the bat something was not right. Her eyes were dilated and glazed over, as if she were high. I'd seen McKinley come home not quite right a couple of times but this was something completely different; something worse. Her skin had taken on a bluish tint and I could tell this woman wasn't doing any old weed joints, no. This was really something bad. I asked my older sister about it later. She looked at me like an idiot as she explained.

"Morphine," she told me.

"What's that?" I asked narrowing my deep brown eyes.

"It's a drug," Kinley replied absent mindedly.

"Obviously," I rolled my eyes. When I didn't move McKinley turned to me.

"Do you want to get out of my room?" her hands were resting on her hips and her left eyebrow had begun to twitch.

"What's Morphine do?" I asked staring her down expectantly.

"It's a highly addictive pain-killer. Anne was a doctor once. Now she's just washed up and crazy like all of the Masons." There was little bit of curious hurt behind my older sister's eyes as she spoke. I cocked my head sideways questioningly. "What?" Kinley had snapped.

"We're not all crazy," I whispered. "Dad's not."

"Dad's barely hanging on as it is." She had replied before pushing me back and slamming the door in my face. I had cried and my mom had immediately scooped me up to comfort me. She'd told me that she knew how awful sisters could be; that she'd had one once. But I wasn't upset about what McKinley had done. It was that moment I'd realized how alone our Dad must feel. Even at age seven I understood how strong Matthew Mason truly was.

There are an awful lot of things I shouldn't know, but I do. My grandpa's a mute and my grandma's a drug addict. One Uncle is an abusive drunk and the other killed himself. My dad is barely holding onto sanity and my Mom is a woman who still lives in her past.

Her name is Caroline and she came from an aristocratic family in southern Virginia. She grew up with horses and butlers and parents that she hardly ever saw. People respected her, though she had little respect for them. For the first nine years of my mother's life she was treated like a princess. When the aliens came and she was taken, her crown was stripped away. That was until my dad found her. Mom always told it like this super romantic story but Hoover and I, we saw right through it.

"Do you think Mom just married Dad because…" he trailed off but I knew what he'd meant.

"…because he treated her like she was on some kind of pedestal." I finished for him.

"Exactly," my brother had said looking down at me from his top bunk.

"Poor Dad," I said flicking a rubber band at my older brother's face.

"Hey!" he said, laughing, before throwing a pillow down at my head.

"He really loves her," my features had gone somber.

"Love," Hoover scoffed.

"Yes," I replied, frowning, "Love. Even with her scars, he loves her."

"I bet you just want Boone to love you, too." Hoover stuck his tongue out at me as my cheeks had flushed bright pink. Boone was my brother's best friend, three years older than me but I'd known him my whole life.

"Shut up," I grumbled. It was my brother's turn to become serious.

"Have you talked about the Invasion yet in Learning?" my brother asked me, emotionless.

"Yeah," I replied quietly.

"It's a load of bull," Hoover growled.

"What?" my eyes widened. Nobody questioned what was taught in Learning. It was immediate cause for Punishment.

"Do they really expect us to believe that the Overlords came in peace to 'fix' humanity?" Hoover shook his head.

"Well, yeah," I'd replied skeptically. "That's what happened."

"Uncle Ben wouldn't be dead if that were true," I opened and shut my mouth a couple of times, trying to think of an answer. When I couldn't, my brother continued. "I mean, they've got us trapped inside one giant electric fence."

"Wall," I instinctively corrected. Calling it anything except the Wall was cause for immediate Punishment as well.

"Whatever," Hoover rolled his chocolaty brown eyes. "Don't you want to know what's beyond the Wall?" I looked up at my sibling in shock.

"There's nothing but danger outside the Wall, Hoover. You know that, don't you?" My voice sounded strangely robotic and rehearsed.

"You sound just like _them_," he hissed with disgust. I knew who he was talking about; the men and women with the spikes in their back. They were our Learners and our Security. Everything that went on inside of the Wall had to have their stamp of approval before it was done.

"They're here to keep the human race _safe_." I said, reciting what I'd heard over and over in class at Learning.

"Not at all," Hoover said, his eyes glimmering with something I'd never seen before. Ambition? No, it was something more than that. "They're here to keep us in."

**AN: So, this is a fresh idea that was developed between me and AwesomeChic101. These characters were built up by hand and we really hope you enjoy them. As the title says…this is the Second Generation. Matt's kiddies are in this story. I hope you enjoyed this and are excited for the next Chapter! Let me know! Matt, Anne, Tom, Ben, Hal, and any other canon characters belong to TNT and what not. However, Boone, Regan Mason, McKinley Mason, Hoover Mason, Faith Mason, and Kennedy belong to AwesomeChick101 and I. Hope you liked them as much as we did. Thanks again and be sure to Review. I love ya'll's opinions!**


	2. The Caverns

"Where'd you even get this idea?" I hissed through clenched teeth as we slowly inched along one of the many perfectly maintained brick buildings in the Society. For weeks Hoover had been trying to tell me I needed to see what Boone and his parents had figured out. At first I refused but he wouldn't let up.

"You need to know," he'd insisted.

"If we get caught it is immediate cause for Punishment," I'd told him, trying to reason.

"Well," he'd replied with a mischievous smile. "We won't get caught."

I was already regretting my decision to believe him. Security was prowling the streets, heavier than usual. There had been rumors that they placed surveillance materials inside all private living areas and I was starting to think those rumors were might be true. Maybe they knew Hoover and I were out here past curfew. Taking a deep breath, I tried to forget what immediate Punishment was like. We all knew, but no one spoke of it and if they could avoid it, they didn't think about it either.

"I told you," Hoover whispered, finally answering me, "Boone's mom and dad. We just need to get to them."

"Like that's going to happen," I replied sarcastically, rolling my eyes.

"It's going to," Hoover retorted angrily. That was when all hell broke loose. Loud pops filled the once still and quiet air.

"Was that…?" I trailed off, my dark eyes widened.

"Gunshot?" my older brother provided, without reserve, a smile that spread from cheek to cheek. "Probably. Now come on, this is it. Run." He took off like a thoroughbred and I was close behind.

After an hour and a half of basically crawling on our hands and knees we got to Boone's cookie-cutter cottage; a trip that usually only takes ten minutes walking during the daylight, mind you. The house was perfectly square and made of red brick with white shutters and a white painted wrap around porch. The door was white as well and the house was identical to every other house in the Society. The Liberated Ones who had built the Society had wanted it this way. No one could be better or more entitled than another if what they all had was the same.

"About time ya'll got here," a voice with a deep southern twang said through the closed door. "We been up waitin' for hours."

"Sorry, Tector." Hoover answered as he slipped a small piece of notebook paper through the gap between the door and the doorframe. I looked at him curiously. "In case we have Liberated Ones with us. That way I can let them know," he explained. I nodded as the white door swung open. Tector rushed us both inside, his calloused hand brushing up against my chilled back.

"It must be colder than a witch's heart out there," he said, grabbing me and my brother knit blankets.

"Do any of you kids want hot chocolate?" called Tector's wife, Leanne, from the kitchen.

"Yes, please," Hoover answered eagerly.

"Alright," Boone said coming out of his bedroom down the hall. He took a seat on the living room couch and looked expectantly at the three of us still standing. "Let's get down to business. We don't have all night." He took a seat beside his best friend and I sat at their feet. Tector chose his personal recliner.

"What exactly is going on?" I asked.

"Well," Tector said picking up his glass bottle of beer from the side table. "You've heard about the Resistance."

"Yes," I replied, furrowing my brow, "Millions of pointless death and even more after because humans were incapable of understanding the idea of peace."

"No." Boone cut in with a sense of finality.

"We aren't _allowed_ to think anything different." I told them. Was I the only one left with any sense?

"Exactly," my brother cut in. "We aren't allowed to. We're being forced to believe a lie."

"This kind of…" Boone paused in search of the correct word, "Oppression is unacceptable." I felt my stomach turn a little bit as Boone explained his eyes were dark green and speckled brown; completely electrified with passion.

"Are you trying to get yourself killed?" I growled lowly at Boone, he was cute, but not cute enough to make me completely abandon my own safety. This kind of thinking was more than immediate cause for Punishment. "If a Liberated One hears you…"

"I don't get why they call themselves 'Liberated Ones'." Tector shrugged, taking a swig from his beer. "They're not free or nothin'. They're forced into wearin' those leeches on their backs 'till they turn 18. It's awful."

"Leeches?" I cocked my head sideways.

"Harnesses," my brother supplied. I still didn't understand. Boone got up from where he sat and headed back into his room. When he returned he held a strange, dead looking bug. It was oversized and had turned a bleak, lifeless, and brown. It looked like a giant caterpillar with spikes protruding from its under-belly.

"Harnesses. They're what make the Liberated Ones the way they are." Boone explained. "They don't tell you that in Learning 'cause they don't want you to know."

"What do they do?" I asked, my voice full of horror.

Tector leaned back in his recliner and put his hands behind his head. "That's easy," he said. "They get rid of your free will; destroying your freedom, ain't liberatin' you, they're cagin' you up into the teensiest little corner of your subconscious so that you can't do nothin' as them aliens take over your mind _and_ your body."

"Uncle Ben was harnessed once," Hoover murmured softly.

"How do you know that?" I looked over at my brother, his head hung low as he stared at the floor.

"I heard Dad talking about it once," he replied without looking up. "Mom was harnessed too."

"Mom?" I inhaled sharply. "But how? She's not like…."

"A Liberated One? Papa Tom's wife, Anne, she removed the harnesses before it finished the process. That's where she got the scars. That 'armor' that they wear, isn't armor. It's their skin. When Mom got to the Resistance they tried burning it off of her. She'd only been, like, nine years old."

"She told us it was a car accident," my voice sounded desperate, even in my own ears.

"Kennedy, when have they ever told us the truth?" Though I knew what he said was right, his words were full of unnecessary spite. I remained silent.

"Three mugs of your Mama's best hot cocoa," Leanne's warm voice filled the tense air. She pulled her shock of wavy brown hair back into a ponytail after handing us kids our drinks. All three of us took long, grateful gulps. I darn near burnt my tongue. "What's with the long face, Ms. Kennedy?"

"The truth just hurts sometimes, Darlin'," Tector answered for me. "She's in for a whole lot more of it." Hoover's face twisted up into an excited grin.

"Is it time to show her, Dad?" Boone stood up, blue ceramic mug in hand. He took a final sip before handing it back to his mother. Hoover did the same and I mimicked the boys, somewhat unhappily since I hadn't gotten to finish my cup.

"I think so, Bud." Tector stood up and swaggered with a slight limp in his step toward a bookshelf pushed up against the long wall of the living room. The gray-haired man reached back into one of the empty slots between books. A mechanical click echoed through the quiet and Tector pulled back revealing a roughly carved crawl space that appeared to slant downward under the foundation of the house.

"No way," I breathed, jaw dropped. Boone had a secret passage, like Hogwarts, in his house. Dad had read those books to Hoover and I. He'd told us that his father had read them to him and his brothers so it was only right that he read them to us. They had been Uncle Ben's favorite.

"C'mon," Boone was smiling at me as he got down on his hands and knees. He was the first to go down the tunnel, followed by me, then Tector and Hoover. Leanne stayed up in the house.

"Just in case the Liberated Ones come," she'd explained with a weary smile.

The tunnel ended up longer than I'd expected. Mud was caking the palms of my hands and the temperature was dropping as we went deeper and deeper under the house. Eventually the mud turned to ice cold rock. How far down did this thing go? What the hell could they be hiding down here? It didn't take much longer for my questions to be answered. As the burrow ended its gradual decline and broadened out it lead into a dimly lit cavern. The walls were lined with shelving that held every type of weapon I knew existed. Even one of the Liberated One's sedative ray guns was hanging up on a hook. I'd only ever seen one once when kids were being selected for Liberation in year 5 of Learning. Mechs had come in and chosen the very best of our Year to bring back to their leaders.

"What the hell," I breathed turning slowly around, examining all sides of the cave.

"Awesome, isn't it?" Boone asked me running a hand through his shaggy, dusty brown hair.

"No!" I retorted sharply. "What are you guys planning on doing with all of this?" I watched, horrified as Hoover picked up some kind of huge assault rifle. I had no idea what kind it was but my brother turned it over in his hands, gazing at it like it was pure gold.

"Don't you see?" he asked me, his eyes wide and searching. "We could do this."

"Do what?" my chest was beginning to tighten with every intake of air. The walls kept getting closer and closer as my panic attack worsened.

"We could rebel against them Kennedy," Boone pointed to the opposite end of the grotto where a limestone channel snaked off from the main chamber. "That leads straight out of this hell and into the freedom of South Carolina."

"Why would we want to leave?" I hardly managed to choke out. Black spots had begun to appear in my line of vision.

"Because," Tector started to answer, "This is our…" I never heard the end of his sentence. Stone cold ground came up to meet me as the darkness flooded my sight entirely.

"What the hell were you thinking, bringing your sister out there like that?" I awoke to the angry voice of my father ringing through the house. Reagan had started to whimper in her bed and McKinley was shouting for everyone to 'shut the hell up'.

"Dad!" I heard Hoover yell. "You can't keep letting them make us live like this!"

"Keep your voice _down_!" Dad snarled. I pushed myself up out of bed, nearly hitting my head on my brother's top bunk.

"Would you listen?" Hoover asked calmly, his voice dropping to a normal volume. I assumed Dad nodded because he continued. "Tector and Dai and Anthony and Pope…" there was a long pause.

"Pope's dead now," my father said somberly. I gasped and went busting out of my room.

"Dad?" I looked at him, my brown eyes frantic and tight dark blonde ringlets flying in every direction. "What do you mean Pope's dead?"

When Papa Tom had gone mentally AWOL it had been Pope that stepped up to raise my Dad. Hal had other things to deal with. Aunt Maggie's cancer had relapsed and he was doing his best to take care of her. Dad had only been eleven or twelve at the time and after many a family dinner with Pope I'd come to know he hadn't had an easy time of his teenage years. Still, a man like Pope willing to bring up an adolescent; you had to give him credit. They had even come to care for each other in the time gone by. I could tell he was trying to hold back tears and stay strong for Hoover and I as he stared up at me.

"He was out past curfew," he sniffed, "Typical Pope, and the Security shot." Something clicked in my mind as I remembered the gunfire Hoover and I had heard on our way to Boone's last night. Glancing over at my older brother, we made disgraced eye contact.

"D-do you know what he was doing out there?" I stuttered guiltily. When the noise had rung out across the late night silence of the Society, I had been somewhat grateful. Those shots had been provided a perfect distraction and now I was learning that they had been buried into the man who had the dignity to raise my own father when no one else would. Dad subtly shook his head and looked to an ashamed Hoover. I raised my eyebrows questioningly at him.

"Yeah," he said softly, scratching the back of his head. "He was going over to Lourdes's flat."

"Why?" I asked. Lourdes was the kind of person you didn't see often. She worked with the Liberated Ones at the Care Facility in Society Square but she kept to herself. Her and my dad were somewhat close, though.

"Planning," my brother's russet eyes examined our maple wood floors, unable to look at Dad.

"For what?"

"The rebellion," he replied. "She had an idea."

"An idea?" my father cut in.

"Yes," Hoover annunciated. "She'd figured out how we were going to communicate with the Overlords once we found them."

**AN: Well here you go! Chapter 2 of the Second Generation is here. This story is literally so much fun to write. I've never really connected myself to characters the way I've connected myself to Kennedy and Hoover and Boone. Next Chapter we're going to see a little bit of Hal and a lot a bit of Lourdes. A surprising new OC awaits you all for next time. Brownie points if you can guess who "Leanne" is. Don't forget that AwesomeChick101 has as much to do with this story as I do. SO, if you find yourself with extra time PM her and let her know what you think of it but make sure you REVIEW first! Thanks for reading and see you next time.**

**-Shadow**

**PS. Believe it or not despite the fact that I made Tom a mute, Anne a drug addict, Ben dead by suicide, and Hal an abusive drunk… it was really hard for me to kill off Pope. It took me a while to decide between him, Anthony, and Dai but I decided his death would be the most monumental to Matt and his family so he's the one that hit the guillotine. **


	3. Vengeance

The thing you've got to understand here is that Hoover is my big brother. Anyone with a big brother knows that when they start giving you the time of day it's like Christmas. And that's what he was doing; actually bothering to spend time with me, give a crap about what I had to say. Of course, there was an ultimatum. There had to be. No fourteen year old would actually hang out with his eleven year old sister for nothing. My own stupidity; didn't even know what that manipulative little prick was doing until it was too late. For the third night in a row he had me heading over to Boone's. Even after what had happened to Pope, he didn't seem to show any fear and I'll admit, I admired him for it. Probably because the moment we left the vicinity of the house I'd started shaking like a dang leaf.

Hoover had appeared even more excited about tonight than usual. "They've made huge progress!" He'd exclaimed, waking me up well past midnight.

A flood of curses were rising from my chest but I bottled them up, not wanting to wake Dad. He'd have our heads for just talking about the Rebellion. I couldn't blame him. Fighting had destroyed so much of what he had and a second fight could only further the damage, in fact, it'd already claimed the man who had raised him. On some levels I agreed with my dad. Why not just live our lives; suffer a little for the good of the people. Then on the other hand, as Hoover had made clear, this was our planet and we had every right to fight.

So I got up at of bed without a word of protest, pulled on a hoody, and slipped silent as cat out of the bedroom window. I was starting to get way too good at that, I thought to myself with a slight shake of my head. Hoover crept around the side of the house before giving me the all clear. We'd both noticed how Security had lightened up since Pope's massacre. They must've figured that we'd get the message and stop trying. Despite all of that, Hoover and I had been out the next night after his murder, learning how to load, aim, and shoot a gun. I didn't really understand why it was all that necessary for _me_ to be there. Hoover was the one who would be going, no way in hell I would. Just breaking curfew was eating up the defiant streak I had in me. Besides, I was barely even 11. Why would they want me in the first place? I'd just get in the way.

We got to Boone's without a hitch and Leanne hurried us inside. The forced smile on her face told me she approved of this just as much as I did, if not less.

"They're already down there," she said. I wasn't sure but I could've sworn I heard a taste of pity in her words.

Hoover thanked her and pulled the switch hidden within the bookshelf, revealing the tunnel. We crawled inside and emerged out into the cavern within 15 minutes. I was surprised to see so many people. Foolishly, I'd assumed this was a relatively small operation. Many of the faces I recognized; Dai and Anthony and Dr. Delgado, even Mr. Weaver's weather beaten face, however the faces I didn't know outweighed the ones I did.

What shocked me more than anything was the amount of kids I was seeing. I wasn't really familiar with many of them, a few were in my Class at Learning but for the most part they were in their adolescent years. Turning to my right to ask Hoover what the deal was with the youth army being built, he was gone. Panic arose in my chest but it disappeared when I spotted him in the middle of the cave standing behind Boone. The short haired dirty, blonde held a thick notebook across his forearms and he was flipping through the pages. Hoover would point something out over his shoulder and Boone would turn back and shake his head or make some sort of comment. Every now and again he would scribble something into the book with his pen and they would repeat the process. I'd been kind of lulled into a tired stupor watching the boys that when a voice spoke out behind me I nearly jumped out of my boots.

"Sorry," the voice said sweetly, "didn't mean to scare you." I spun to see a woman with long milk chocolate hair whose face was slightly crinkled with smile lines and I sighed with relief.

"Oh," I breathed, still slightly shaken. "What's up, doc?"

"You guys are going to do great out there, when the time comes," she soothed, much to my confusion. Dr. Delgado always did have a sort of gift with getting people to relax. Back when I'd needed vaccinations she'd been the only one I'd let near me with a needle and even then I'd scream my head off.

"What do you mean, 'out there'?" I asked nervously, though I was pretty sure I knew the answer.

"You mean you didn't know yet?" The doctor's well-shaped eye brows came together slightly as she studied my face for her answer. Once she had gathered that this was in fact, the first time I'd heard anything of the sort she got down on a knee so that she was looking up at me; dark eyes searching my own. "Don't be afraid."

"I don't really understand…" I trailed off. "Why would you send a bunch of kids to do this?" there was a sting in my tone as I asked, like a bee trying to defend itself and boy was I trying to defend myself. I did _not_ want to go out there.

"We need you guys," the doctor tried to explain but I could already feel the distress rising inside of me. I couldn't pass out again. She placed her hands on my shoulders and I had to resist the urge to push them, tanned and delicate, off of me.

"That doesn't answer my question!" I replied angrily. Anger could keep the anxiety away better than anything else.

Dr. Delgado looked taken aback at my outburst. "If we leave, the Liberated Ones will know. A bunch of adults that suddenly stop showing up for work is a little more than suspicious. The Rebellion will be annihilated in less than a day. But when summer break comes, you kids will be able to slip away without a word. It could take weeks for them to notice you're gone and by that time it might be too late. Besides it will be even worse here than it is out there once they realize what has happened."

And the awful of it was; it made sense.

"I don't want to go," tears were prickling behind my eyes like needles.

"We need you out there, Kennedy."

"Why?"

"That's what you're here for tonight."

"I don't understand."

"Something's coming and I'm going to need your help when it gets here." Frustration was growing in the pit of my stomach and I balled my pale hands into tiny, white fists. What the hell was wrong with everyone? Have straight answers died and gone to the depths?

"With what, exactly?" I damn near growled.

"There's a child coming to us, one that was chosen for Liberation." Dr. Delgado's voice had lowered and the back of my throat tensed as I realized what she was saying. "We're going to deharness that kid. You're going to be the Rebellion medic when they get out there, understand?" The intensity in the dark skinned woman's voice frightened me. I finally got my answer but it wasn't the one that I'd wanted. All of a sudden I felt indebted, like I couldn't _not_ go. It was a strange and senseless emotion, but one that I knew would follow me around until I obliged and joined the ranks in this insubordination of the Overlords.

We waited for hours down in that hole, I half expected no one to show up with the kid. That was until what I thought was about 4 o'clock am came around. A shout came from behind me as a commotion sprouted up ahead. Pushing through the crowd a Hispanic man who looked to be in his mid-40s with a scruffy, black beard, began to yell something in Spanish. The only word I caught was 'Jeanne'.

"Diego!" a woman yelled from ahead. I managed to see through the cracks between people, a pale dark haired woman with shockingly blue eyes holding a girl who looked a little older than me limply in her arms. A yellowish-orange glow seemed to be emitting from a place behind her neck, casting a strange light at the woman's feet. The entire cave went quiet.

"You got her?" the rickety voice of Mr. Weaver echoed through the deadly silent.

Dr. Delgado motioned for me to join her as she maneuvered her way through the throng of people, closer to the woman with the girl.

"Any trouble?" she asked her.

"A couple of Skitters came after us but Sean managed to take 'em out," replied the woman breathlessly. "It's good to see you though Lourdes, a sight for sore eyes."

"You too, Jeanne." The doctor smiled.

The Hispanic man I assumed was Diego nearly shoved me to the ground to get to Jeanne and I couldn't help but glower as he rapped his slender, but toned arms around what I assumed were his wife and child. He spoke some more Spanish that I didn't understand before letting go and Jeanne responded with teary eyes. Exhaustion was evident in the cobalt irises.

"Ready to get that thing off of her?" Dr. Delgado asked Jeanne with a reassuring smile.

She nodded as grateful streams flowed from her eyes.

"Dr. Delgado…"

"Lourdes," she corrected, taking the motionless child from Jeanne's tired arms.

I nodded. "Lourdes, where are we taking… it?" I stared at the body in Lourdes's arms unsurely. The leech on her back was pulsing slightly and my stomach flipped, nauseated by the sight. Tector was right. These kids weren't being liberated, far from it. The thing looked like it was literally sucking the life out of the child's body.

"We are taking _her_ back to my place." Lourdes replied, slightly irritated. I just nodded and followed her toward one of the larger tunnels, thank god. That meant I wouldn't have to spend any more time hunched over in a crawl.

"You sure you don't want me to take her?" a well shaven head with eyes the shade of the night asked Lourdes, stepping in front of the woman.

"Actually," Lourdes thought for a second. "That'd be great, Sean." The man scooped the unconscious girl out of her hands and continued toward the larger tunnel. Lourdes's hands found their way to my shoulders for the second time that night and she began to steer me in a different direction. My face fell as I realized I hadn't escaped the claustrophobic crawl after all.

When Lourdes and I emerged from our passage the sun had already risen in the sky. It casted an eerily serene, warm glow over the Society, that I once would have agreed was a tranquil place to be. But now, it was an awful irony seeing it like this; a terrible contrast. My heart lurched as I realized I'd spent 11 years believing a lie. Seeing that girl laying lifelessly in her mother's arms; not quite human, had done something to me. I guess it was something that every single person in that cavern had felt at some point. It was a revolution beginning and although I was scared I wasn't going to shy away from it anymore. Somebody needed to fight it. I understood the look in my brother's eye that first day he'd hinted at the Rebellion now. Not ambition, no, it was vengeance.

We walked down the deserted road together, curfew had ended but it was still too early for anybody to be outside. The external noiselessness was doing little to pacify all of the screaming inside of my mind. For a moment I thought I was losing it completely, I couldn't tell if I was hearing things or the shouts were real but Lourdes's sudden halt confirmed it. I stared at the number nailed onto the door. A voice in the back of my head told me that I recognized it but I didn't want to. The yelps of pain were coming from a young girl, sending chills down my spine.

"Daddy!" she whimpered. "Stop!" her voice was trembling and I looked desperately to Lourdes. Her own eyes were wide with terror as she confirmed what I already knew to be true.

"Hal."

And that was all it took. Without even thinking I had barged my way through the front door, ignoring all shouts of protest from Lourdes. The sight in front of me is one that will probably stick with me as long as I live. Broken glass littered the hard wood floor and a trail of blood lead down the hall. I flinched as a shard lodged itself in the soul of my boot. I hesitated slightly before pulling it out, slicing my hand open in the process. Silent tears leaked out of my eyes as I held my hand to staunch the blood. Rounding the corner I caught sight of Hal standing over Faith's writhing body, her screams echoing down the hallway. One eye was completely swollen shut and the other red from crying. Lourdes came up from behind and pushed me aside, approaching Hal without a second thought.

At first she nudged him lightly and then harder. He didn't notice either of us at first but when he did ferocity came into his dilated eyes. He shoved Lourdes and she flew backwards, hitting her head on the coffee table before crumpling to the ground. If I couldn't take on a human how the heck did people expect me to fight aliens? I took a deep breath and approached my uncle slowly. His eyes were assessing me the way a predator assesses its prey. None the less I stood my ground and didn't even notice as Faith's whimpers subsided. Hal's grip on his daughter loosened and he picked himself up off of her, staring down at his own hands as tears filled his eyes. It was like he couldn't believe what he had done. He picked up an empty beer bottle and chucked it at the wall closest to us sending pieces of it flying everywhere. I brought my arms up over my head and gave my Uncle a look of pure disdain once I was sure it was safe to lift my face.

"Get out," he snarled. "Get OUT!"

I shook Lourdes back to consciousness and grabbed Faith by the arm, practically dragging the two out. Faith seemed slightly woozy once we'd gotten to the doctor's house and the doctor herself wasn't looking too hot either, though she had managed to get back onto her feet.

"That asshole," she growled, dabbing the blood off of the back of her head with a pad of gauze. "He's not the only one who lost somebody."

I looked to Lourdes, questioningly but she didn't elaborate.

Once she was sure that Faith would be okay for a little, she took me back to her bedroom and into her  
closet. She pushed back a couple of old dresses and pulled hard on a string hanging up from the ceiling. The wall itself seemed to slide sideways revealing a whole new room. The sides were lined with medical supplies and in the center was a metal operating table. The harnessed girl lie face down on it hooked to some sort of IV drip. Sean was sitting on a stool beside her, waiting for us.

"What the hell happened to you two?" he asked, concern riddling his deep voice.

"Hal Mason," Lourdes grumbled. She pointed to the clear liquid inside the IV bags. "Morphine," she explained. "The harnesses pump the kids full of drugs and if you take the harness off without it, they go into withdrawal and die. Understood?"

I nodded. She gestured for me to come closer.

"I need you to pull the harness up as hard as you can, okay?" Almost instinctively I started to shake my head. "Okay!"

She basically forced my hands onto the writhing leech-like bug and made me pull. It came up relatively easy, revealing silver barbs coated slightly in blood. I felt bile sneaking up the back of my throat and I did my best to swallow it. What the hell was I doing? I'm not cut out for this. Lourdes started to cut through needles, peeling the harness further and further back. As soon as it was off I placed it onto the metal tray and ran out of the room, unable to hold in the vomit any longer.

Lourdes was behind me in a second, holding my curly brown hair out of the way. "It gets easier," she tried to console but it did nothing for me. I don't know what sickened me more; what the aliens had done to Hal or what they had done to that girl but yet again the only thing on my mind was vengeance.

**AN: Hey guys! Thanks to all who reviewed! I really appreciate it. This chapter was longer than I usually write and I'm sorry it took so long. I was about 1000 words into it when my computer crashed! The horrors! Once again I have to thank AwesomeChick101 because this is as much her story as it is mine. That Hal/Lourdes/Kennedy/Faith scene still freaks me out soooo much. Writing it I had goosebumps. Here we saw a slight change in Kennedy as she realizes the hell that has befallen her family in an entirely different scope. Hope you guys are still liking it. The more you guys review the faster I type. It's true. After my computer crashed and I had to restart the only thing that kept me going was you guys! So please REVIEW! I want to know what you think and what you want and don't wanna see! (No promises, I've been brutal so far with this story and it will continue)**


	4. Taking Bullets

Pump handle forward, cartridge in, pump handle back, shoot, shoot, shoot, and repeat. Targets were beginning to blur in my tired sights and my hand was throbbing where stitches had pulled the skin together. I propped the shotgun down at my feet, barrel lying parallel to my leg. Looking to my right I saw a dark skinned boy. Unable to keep myself from marveling as the boy loaded two weapons at once and shot; bullets burying themselves in their marks. I stared at him. His textured hair was braided back into tight cornrows and his eyes were narrowed black seeds. He cocked his head and caught sight of me and I found myself completely frozen in awe.

"What you looking at, girl?" his words were rushed so that the beginning of one sounded like the end of another. I shifted my weight uncomfortably as he held my gaze.

"It's Kennedy," I murmured.

"What was that?" he set the handgun he'd been gripping in his left hand down on the table in front of his him and pushed his ear forward with his calloused palm.

"My name's Kennedy, not 'girl." I repeated louder, with more confidence.

Recognition flashed in his beady eyes. "Mason?"

"Yeah."

"Your brother's Hoover, isn't he?" the boy picked up his arms and reloaded them in the time it took him to ask. Without waiting for my response, he shot.

"You're good at that," I noted. He shrugged his chiseled shoulder up to his ear and made a grunt of neutral standing.

"I'm alright."

"If you're alright than I'm absolutely awful."

The boy was silent at that.

"Well, jeez!" I exclaimed picking the shotgun back up. I propped it up on the slate of rough wood and looked through the scope. Quickly as I could, I stuck a round into the chamber and slid the pump handle back and shot at the furthest target. The bullet missed the spot on the cardboard cutout by a little more than an inch. "Crap," I mumbled.

"Point and case."

"Screw you," I retorted, glaring at my new companion.

"Oh little Mason," his voice was condescending and I felt my utter dislike of whoever the heck this guy was growing. "I'd say screw you too, but with that shot you'll be screwing yourself soon enough."

"Who do you think you are?" I slammed my own weapon down on the slat of wood and the noise echoed down the caverns. I whipped around to face him.

"Darrell," he answered, his full lips had turned up at the sides as he smirked at my reaction. "You know my dad."

"I do?"

"Yeah," he replied reaching his hand to the back of his neck. "Anthony."

"Oh," I'd heard he had a son but I'd never seen him up close before.

"You need to level out more," his eyes had dropped back down to his hands.

"What?"

"When you shoot, you're rushing and it puts your barrel at an angle." I scoffed, who was he to lecture me on rushing? Then again, all of his shots had made their marks.

"Okay?"

Darrell nodded his head toward my fire arms and looked back up at me expectantly. "Try again," he said after a moment.

Inwardly, I groaned as I picked it up and knelt down to reach for another clip. I slid it in and pumped as I looked through the scope, eyes locked on the same spot.

"Good," I heard Darrell's level voice. "Now breathe."

I rolled my eyes but took in a sharp breath, letting my body relax as I exhaled. Squeezing my eyelids shut tight I tensed my grip on the trigger. When I flashed my toffee colored eyes open muffled gunshot resounded off of the cold stone walls. There was satisfying thunk as the bullet buried itself deep into the soft spot of the cut out.

"Thanks," I mumbled.

He cocked a dark eyebrow in response and I remembered how tired I actually was. The sun would've risen by now and I had to be home before Dad woke up.

He had hardly bought the story I'd given him about my hand and walking in the door as he was rising wouldn't help my case.

"I tripped." He'd looked at me skeptically, expecting further explanation. "Shoes were untied and, uh, there was a piece of glass." At least that was the half-truth. There _had_ been a piece of glass.

Lourdes had the tougher job. She'd shown up at our doorstep that same afternoon holding a sedated Faith in her arms. Stitches extended from the young blonde's temple all the way down to her ear and the swelling had only worsened. It sickened me even worse the second time around, making the shock easier to fake.

Dad had herded Regan and I back into the house as the both of us tried to see what had happened to our older cousin. Reagan had even tried to ask but it came out a lisped and jumbled mess. The toddler hadn't gotten all of her words straight yet.

I shushed her and tried to turn my attention back to the conversation in the living room.

"You can't send her back to him, Matt." Lourdes's sweet voice held stark contrast to my dad's weary drawl.

"I know, but if he comes for her what am I supposed to do?" frustration reverberated in his strained words.

"I don't know…Just don't let him have her. He's taken this far enough." Lourdes's voice was hardly above a susurrate now.

"Did he do that…to your head?" the memory of the doctor's body flying towards the table flashed behind my eyes. I blinked the image away like windshield wipers on the cars from before the invasion that Dad had shown me.

"Yes."

"Is she going to be okay? Are you" Dad asked.

"Yes, just a little bit of scarring. And don't you worry about me."

The door clicked shut as Lourdes left and Dad called for my sister and me.

For the past week I'd been going to Dr. Delgado's secret office after school. As Faith began to heal, she started to tag along as well. The girl that Jeanne and Sean had brought us finally awoke a little more than a week after the removal of her harness. Faith and I had been sitting around, sorting gauze pads and Lourdes was off at her actual job when the girl had opened her strange, not quite brown eyes. Although her awakening seemed to have no effect on my cousin, it scared the living daylights out of me.

Faith pushed a strand of her dirty blonde hair out of her sun-kissed face as she approached the patient. A look of sheer curiosity played across her features. As she got closer to the table the girl lying on it tried to push herself further and further away; eyes wide and frantic like the fighters in the Mech-lights that Tector and Pope had told us stories about.

"Easy," my cousin soothed, drawing ever nearer to the frightened form.

"W-who are you?" the girl stuttered, her voice cracking with fearful disorientation.

"My name is Faith." The blonde pulled up a stool and sat, her hazel eyes twitching from side to side as if she was reading her charge like a book. "What's yours?"

"M-Magdalena," she spouted it off like it was an unimportant detail then continued to antagonize Faith. "Why am I here?"

"Dr. Delgado… do you remember her?"

"Of course," Magdalena relaxed slightly where she lay. "She was close with my Mom…where's my Mom?" the realization of her mother's absence brought on a whole second wave of trepidation.

Faith turned back to me questioningly. I shrugged in response but she narrowed her eyes with vexation and I knew I had no other choice but to go figure out where the heck Jeanne was. Faith glanced toward Magdalena and then back to me her eye brows furrowed, concernedly, as if to say, 'and be quick about it.'

That was when everything went to hell. As I'd sprinted past my own house to looking for any signs of Jeanne, my dad came darting out with dark and frantic eyes. I pulled up short and appraised him with curiosity.

"Dad?"

His eyelids were drooping like it was almost painful to keep them open. Desperation screamed at every move he made and with every move he made I became more frightened.

"Daddy?" I repeated.

"They took Kinley."

"What?" my lips parted as my brows came together in wistful misunderstanding. I knew what he meant, but I didn't want to.

"They _know_."

**AN: Sorry for the short chapter but in my defense the last one was pretty long. Also sorry this one took so long I was trying to figure out what the heck to do with the plot and now I do. Next chapter is gonna be exciting. Darrell 3 my boy! He's so much fun and I hope you enjoyed him as much as I did. AwesomeChick101 is my very amazing and "awesome" consultant/coauthor and Ebi Pers helped me out by as well by giving me some much needed advice on how to get over writer's block. Go read his second generation story called The Skies Shall Fall Again (Ben isn't dead in that one which I know makes a lot of you all smiley and what not) Go read it though. It's really good. Thanks again and don't forget to review!**


	5. The Tunnels

"Daddy!" I sobbed hysterically as I tried to turn around. A firm hand on my shoulder prevented the motion. Sounds of my own distress were echoed in the words of the other children crammed in the space. My entire body racked as fear and desperation mingled inside of me. "Daddy…" I repeated softer, still being pushed along.

"It's alright, baby," came a whisper so subtle and close that it tickled at my ears. I shivered as the breath spread throughout my entire body like wildfire; cold and hot all at once. Something wet dripped onto my shoulder and I tried to turn back again only to be met by the same restricting force. "Just keep walking," the low murmur droned on, never coming above a dim light but never leaving me completely alone in the dark. It told of hope and all of the things that had been unreachable in my life; true freedom, true happiness.

"You'll never have to worry about your children being taken away from you. Threat of destruction will never lurk over your head. You can do this, baby. Kenny, you can make that for yourself."

At the sound of the nickname my eyes squeezed shut and a flood of tears rushed from them; the dam I'd put up for the past couple of weeks had finally shattered. Given, it wasn't a very strong barrier in the first place. Holes riddled the damn thing and no matter how hard I tried to internalize my emotions, they'd come out like honey bees in the spring time, ever present, none relenting. This was different, though. This was like I'd stepped on the hive and it didn't matter how hard I tried to run away, the bees came after, stinging anywhere they could find until I was a raw and swollen shell of the child I'd been, if you could call me a child at all.

"Get to Washington. Bring the Rebellion to DC and then kill them all. No mercy, baby. Understand? No mercy." He went on his and words knitted together like a warm blanket protecting me from the chilled air of the tunnel.

As my thoughts deepened, my grip on reality lessened. The darkness in front of my eyelids seemed to blacken further, if that was even possible. The hand on my shoulder had gone. But that couldn't be. Could it? Dad wouldn't leave me. He couldn't. Shaking the thought completely, I walked on, the ground pattering infinitely under the soles of my sneakers. If time was passing, I couldn't tell. An internal peace came over my body as I marched. Nothing could touch me, not if I kept going.

The scream escaped my lips before my mind had even processed the noise. Tiny claws swarmed around my face, scratching and chattering, filling the tunnel with their high pitched shrieks. My yelp had not been for the bats, though. I had screamed for the long gone contact of my father. A terror plunged to the bottom of my stomach, telling me that could've been the last time I'd ever see Dad. A second scream slipped away from me. Finally able to, I whipped around and started back the way I'd come.

Many a kid had been shepherded down into the tunnel but I couldn't see their faces, not in the total darkness. Grunts of disapproval emitted from the procession as I forced my way back. None of them resisted much and their complaints held little weight. It wasn't that I didn't know the attempt to go back for Dad was futile, I knew that. But I felt like I couldn't just leave my family. Not with McKinley gone. Not with Reagan up there, left as an only child in a world that was surely about to change, for good or for bad. So I continued to push my way through, for them. Then came the light.

Delicate and warm but submerging me in icy fear, orange weakly lit the claustrophobic tunnel. None of the other kids seemed to notice, their eye crinkled shut as mine had been. Faces were illuminated, one after another, as the orange in the tunnel grew. Liberated Ones filled the space. I felt my heart drop in as I recognized these barely human bodies; Marley Peterson from Learning, Vespar Iglesias from next door, Shirley Davis, Emilyne Lawrence, Jackson Harvey, and worst of all: McKinley Mason.

Pools of blood were forming at her bare feet, the points where the spikes had driven into her spine still dripping from their fresh entry. Her usually perfectly managed auburn waves were tied in a precarious bun perched on the top of her lolling head. The pupils of her lifeless brown eyes were pinpoints.

"No!" I shouted at her. She didn't even blink. "Kinley!"

When I saw what she was gripping in her arms my eyes widened, the realization rippling through me. Each child held a package of C4, cradling it like a newborn. There was no other choice now. Either I had to man up and run or be blown to pieces. Without even deciding my feet started to move underneath of me. On the way out I tried shaking the other unharnessed kids awake but they were just as unresponsive as those with the harnesses. A huge part of me wanted to stop and make these kids listen but Hoover needed to know what dad had told me about the old capital of the United States. So I ran on, leaving so much behind with little idea of what I was running into.

When the ground began to shake underneath my feet I just pushed myself harder, refusing to look back. I could feel the heat licking at my heels. It singed the tips of my dark, curly tresses as it chased me out of the tunnels. Dad had said don't look back and now I knew why. Just keep running, I told myself. And I did with little margin for error.

When the tunnel started to cave in, the first rock missed my head by mere inches, the second one scraped down my back, leaving a warm, wet streak of blood to seep as I continued my mad dash. Light at the end of the tunnel, there was light at the end of the tunnel! I made my final push, using every bit of speed I had, to get myself out as boulders came down on my tail.

"Kennedy!" my brother's shout barely breached my hearing. His face was contorting with terror as he watched his only way home fall into rubble. The last thing I saw before it all went dark was the tunnel collapsing with half of the Rebellion and my big sister inside. One final bang rattled across the mountain side and then all went silent.

"We're all dead!"

"Would you keep your voice down?"

"We need to stay calm."

Green flooded my sights as my eyes fluttered open. A headache pounded and blood rushed into my ears. I startled and sat up, disoriented and confused. The air was thick and musty in the heavily wooded forest. Darrell, Hoover, Boone, Faith, Magdalena, and a handful of other kids were sitting around a small fire. Darrell was prodding it with a stick, a scowl imprinted onto his dark features.

"D-dad?" I stammered. Hoover glanced up at me sympathetically and shook his head.

"We're on our own, kiddo." I could tell he was trying to be strong but the look in his eyes told a different story.

"We need to ask—" Boone started.

"Shut up, man." Hoover cut him off. They locked eyes and had some sort of silent exchange. My brother lowered his gaze and nodded at his friend to continue. Boone turned to me.

"What happened in the tunnels?"

I told them about the bats and Dad. Hoover took a sharp breath when I mentioned McKinley. Faith released a sob.

"You sure she's gone?" my brother asked solemnly. When I didn't answer he ran both hands through his short, blonde hair.

"Hoover?" I asked cautiously, half expecting him to snap at me. He didn't, just looked up with wounded eyes. "I couldn't get any of the Rebellion to run when the cave fell in…I-I'm sorry." Fresh tears filled my eyes as the weight of hundreds of lives came down on my shoulder.

"Wasn't your fault," Darrell piped up, looking over from the flickering flame of the camp fire. "The Rebellion leaders; my dad, Boone's dad, even your towards the end, they all got together and decided the best way to force us out was to drug us. Keep us from wimping out. You know?"

I didn't know. All of those kids were dead now. It was my fault, but even more so, it was our fathers' fault. Hoover and Boone questioned me a little longer before finally letting me go. I told them about DC and what Dad had said, my voice tightened with a strange bitterness when I repeated his words. He'd left me and everyone else for dead. He might've even left himself for dead.

Boone nodded at the instruction and pulled a map out of the backpack he had lying at his feet. Noticing my curiosity, he explained. "Weaver and my dad and Dai, well all the 2nd Mass people, plotted out places they'd used and avoided when they'd come down here. If we want to get up to Washington we're going to have to head north."

"Well obviously," my brother smirked and Boone shot him a silencing look. Darrell and I both stifled laughs.

"Our best bet is to take Rt. 1 and follow it all the way up to northern Virginia." Boone finished tensely, expecting further ridicule.

"How are we going to find the road?" a high pitched, nervous voice asked. It had a slight accent, like somebody who would have lived in Miami before the invasion. A couple of the parents talked like that and they'd always say they were from Miami. I looked up and truly noticed Magdalena for the first time. Her hair was thick with a slight wave running through it and her skin was a light russet shade. She had eyes so pale brown they almost appeared blue. Maybe they were blue? I couldn't tell.

Boone opened his mouth but remained silent, like the question had just occurred to him. He turned to Hoover expectantly. My brother shrugged his shoulders in response. They'd broadened since the last time I'd actually looked at my older sibling. He'd gotten bigger in general while I wasn't paying attention.

Watching him and his best friend exchanging ideas, I realized how much they relied on each other. I found myself unsuccessfully imagining one without the other. They'd been inseparable since before either of them had been able to understand what happened in the invasion, let alone an entire Rebellion. Yet here they stood, arguing over the best way to find a road, 8 years later, in the face of what could be humanity's destruction. I remembered when Hoover had first brought Boone home after Learning when he was six. Dad had been thrilled that he was friends with Tector's son and mom had seemed thrilled that he'd had a friend at all. She'd been really worried about Hoover making friends.

Now, Hoover was the one that everyone liked. People listened to him, like he had some sort of charm about him. His warm brown eyes were enticing and comforting. Sometimes, like right now, it's overshadowing, frustrating even. Dad was gone, everyone could be dead, and they're worried about finding a damn road. I guess it was selfish of me. We're out here for a reason. But every time I closed my eyes I saw my sister's blank face staring right through me and it just made me want my daddy more. I shivered as the sun set behind the mountain, casting the gentle slope into shadows. The boys continued their argument but I'd checked out. My body was quivering in the cold as I fell asleep that night to the muffled voices of Hoover and Boone, somewhat hoping my death would be quick and painless when, not if, it came.

**AN: Guys, it took a while again and I'm sorry :P. I hope you're all still interested in reading it because it's a blast to write! McKinley's dead Matt might be…. Oh no! They're headed for the District! Exciting! Tell me what you think and don't forget my amazing coauthor AwesomeChick101! Thanks!**


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